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Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Dolj County, Romania

Region: Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, Romania
Author: Romanian Association for Optimisation of Energy Consumption - SOCER, Craiova, Romania
Consortium Member: TER, Romania
Status: Needs Funding Budget: $1606 Collected: $0 Needs: $1606
Goal: To reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from cars; To encourage citizens' participation in decision- making at the local level.
Comment: This project will involve citizens in an organized effort to improve air quality in their region. It is inspired by Romania's recent entry (January 2007) into the European Union.

Project Coordinator: Daniela Duta
http: //www.socer.cisnet.ro

Project Necessity
Romania is one of the newest members of the European Union (as of January 1, 2007). Most Romanian citizens hope that this will lead to improved economic growth. However, many people do not know that joining the European Union will also involve important personal efforts and life-changes. Our mass-media informs the public about laws that aim to comply with the European Union requirements, but without understanding or explaining their implications.

The Aarhus Convention of the E.U. required environmental information to be progressively available in the framework of electronic databases, to make them easily accessible by the public. But most Romanian citizens have little chance to get this kind of information. This is especially true of Craiova and the other four cities of Dolj county. Craiova city was officially included in the list of the Romanian cities most affected by air pollution. For this reason, Craiova was selected for the development of some projects aiming to reduce carbon emissions by investments in industrial production capacities. So, we need to find ways to get this information to people, and encourage them to act to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, as required by the E.U.

Project Goals

• To increase public information of environmental issues;
• To encourage citizens' participation in the decision- making process at the local level;
• To reduce the impact of urban pollution;
• To carry out practical educational actions:
  • measure the vehicles' burned gas emissions in order to raise awareness of the fact that the non-observance of emission regulations can affect the environment by increased emissions of CO2, lead, etc. ejected because of unexpected and frequent brakes;
  • and measure agents (CO2, NOx, SOx) in the city, and in the green areas in order to register the differences;
• To submit some project proposals for local government to consider for future collaboration. Project Period: 4 months

  Expected Results:

  • Setting up a Task Force for future initiatives in order to reduce air pollution, especially carbon emissions;
  • Better care of green areas, especially those near the schools;
  • Decrease in air pollution from vehicles in the central city;
  • Increase in the level of information and involvement by the general public.

  Budget: Total project budget is approximately $2000.

  Our own contribution is:

  Preparation work for 2 persons x 3 hours/day x 4 months: $540

  VF Request:
  Materials for the meetings and publicity of the project	$140
  Guide printing (4000 copies)	$960
  Organizing Cartoon Exhibition	$90
  Exhibition Prizes	$70
  Excursion (50 school-aged participants)	$200
  VF Administrative Cost (10%)	$146
  Total Requested from the VF	$1606

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